Alfred Hitchcock Presentsis an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, airing on CBS and NBC, alternately, between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965, it was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock himself directed only 18 episodes during its run.
By the time the show premiered on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. In the 21st century, Time magazine named Alfred Hitchcock Presents as one of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All Time".[3] The Writers Guild of America ranked it #79 on their list of the 101 Best-Written TV Series, tying it with Monty Python's Flying Circus, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Upstairs, Downstairs.[4] In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked it 18th on its list of 30 Best Horror TV Shows of All Time.[2]
History
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its title sequence.[5] The camera fades in on a simple line-drawing caricature of Hitchcock's rotund profile (which Hitchcock drew), to the theme music of Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" (suggested by Hitchcock's long-time musical collaborator Bernard Herrmann).[6] Hitchcock appears in silhouette from the right edge of the screen, and then walks to center screen to eclipse the caricature. The caricature drawing and Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" have become indelibly associated with Hitchcock in popular culture.[7][8][9]
After the title sequence, Hitchcock almost always greets his audience with, "Good evening," before drolly introducing the story from an empty studio or from the set of the current episode; his usually comical monologues were written by James B. Allardice. [10][11] At least two versions of the opening were shot for every episode. A version intended for the American audience would often spoof a recent popular commercial or poke fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial.[12][13]
Hitchcock closed the show in much the same way as it opened, but mainly to tie up loose ends rather than joke.[14] Frequently, a leading character in the story would have seemingly gotten away with a criminal activity. In the postscript, Hitchcock would briefly detail, usually unconvincingly, how fate (or the authorities) eventually brought the character to justice. Hitchcock told TV Guide that his reassurances that the criminal had been apprehended were "a necessary gesture to morality."[15]
Alfred Hitchcock Presents finished at number 6 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1956–57 season, number 12 in 1957–58, number 24 in 1958–59, and number 25 in 1959–60.[16] The series was originally 25 minutes per episode, but it was expanded to 50 minutes in 1962 and retitled The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock directed 17 of the 267 filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents — four during the first season and one or two per season thereafter. He directed only the fourth of the 93 50-minute episodes, entitled "I Saw the Whole Thing" with John Forsythe.[17][18][19] The last new episode aired on June 26, 1965, but the series has continued to be popular in television syndication for decades,[20][21][9][22] including in the UK, where it is currently being shown on Sky Arts.[23]
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 25 minutes long, aired weekly at 9:30 on CBS on Sunday nights from 1955 to 1960, and then at 8:30 on NBC on Tuesday nights from 1960 to 1962.[41] It was followed by The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which lasted for three seasons, September 1962 to June 1965, adding another 93 episodes to the 268 already produced for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.[18]
Among the most famous episodes remains writer Roald Dahl's "Man from the South" (1960)[43] starring Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre, in which a man bets his finger that he can start his lighter 10 times in a row. This episode was ranked #41 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[44] The episode was later referenced and remade in the film Four Rooms, with Quentin Tarantino directing a segment called "The Man from Hollywood".
The 1962 episode "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was not aired by NBC because the sponsor felt that the ending was too gruesome.[45] The plot has a magician's helper performing a "sawing a woman in half" trick. Not knowing that the performance is meant to be an illusion, the helper actually cuts an unconscious woman in half. The episode was included in the syndication package for the series and is now considered to be in the public domain.[46]
Home media
Universal Studios released the first five seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD in Region 1. Season 6 was released on November 12, 2013 via Amazon.com's CreateSpace program. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release on DVD-R, available exclusively through Amazon.com.[47]
In Region 2, Universal Pictures UK has released the first three seasons on DVD, and Fabulous Films has released all seven seasons on DVD, including all three seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.[48][49]
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment has released all seven seasons on DVD in Australia. They have also released all three seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
DVD title
Episodes
Release dates
Region 1
Region 2
Region 4
Season One
39
October 4, 2005 March 13, 2018 (re-release)
February 20, 2006
July 15, 2009
Season Two
39
October 17, 2006
March 26, 2007
November 17, 2009
Season Three
39
October 9, 2007
April 14, 2008
May 17, 2010
Season Four
36
November 24, 2009
October 26, 2015
September 29, 2010
Season Five
38
January 3, 2012
October 26, 2015
May 18, 2011
Season Six
38
November 12, 2013 (DVD-R)
October 26, 2015
November 16, 2011
Season Seven
38
n/a
October 26, 2015
February 20, 2013
DVD title
Episodes
Region 2
Region 4
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Complete First Season
32
January 11, 2016
May 22, 2013
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Complete Second Season
32
January 11, 2016
May 22, 2013
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Complete Third Season
In 1985, NBC aired a new TV movie pilot based upon the series, combining four newly filmed stories with colorized footage of Hitchcock from the original series to introduce each segment. The movie was a huge ratings success. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents revival series debuted in the fall of 1985 and retained the same format as the pilot: newly filmed stories (a mixture of original works and updated remakes of original series episodes) with colorized introductions by Hitchcock. The new series lasted only one season before NBC cancelled it, but it was then produced for three more years by the USA Network.
In other media
Alfred Hitchcock Presents used Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" (1872) as its theme song. Hitchcock heard it first in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. When he was choosing music for his TV show, he remembered the effect Gounod's piece had on him. It was through Hitchcock's program that the music achieved its widest audience.
Books
A series of literary anthologies with the running title Alfred Hitchcock Presents were issued to capitalize on the success of the television series. One volume, devoted to stories that censors would not allow to be adapted for broadcast, was entitled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV—though eventually several of the stories collected therein were adapted.
In 1958, Imperial Records released Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Music to Be Murdered By.[50]
Cover of Alfred Hitchcock Presents Ghost Stories for Young People (Golden Records 1962)
In 1962, Golden Records released a record album of six ghost stories for children titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Ghost Stories for Young People. The album opens with Charles Gounod's theme music and is hosted by Hitchcock himself. He begins, "How do you do, boys and girls? I'm delighted to find that you believe in ghosts, too. After all, they believe in you, so it is only common courtesy to return the favor."[51]
Hitchcock introduces each of the stories, all the while recounting a droll story of his own failed attempts to deal with a leaky faucet (which at the conclusion of the album leads to Hitchcock "drowning" in his flooded home). The ghost stories are read by actor John Allen with minimal sound effects and music. Allen wrote four of the stories:[51]
"The Haunted and the Haunters (The Pirate's Curse)"
On 1 August 2024, it was announced that a stage musical adaptation of the series would have its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Bath in March 2025, featuring music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak, book by Jay Dyer and directed by John Doyle.
Legacy
American rapper Eminem used the theme song in his song "Alfred's Theme" from his album Music to Be Murdered By – Side B (2020), which itself is one of two albums inspired by Hitchcock's 1958 spoken-word record of the same name.[52]
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↑ "TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes". IMDb. Archived from the original on May 20, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ Reassessing the Hitchcock Touch: Industry, Collaboration, and Filmmaking. Edited by Wieland Schwanebeck. Springer International Publishing, 2017. 114.
Grams, Martin, Jr. and Patrik Wikstrom, The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub. 2001 (paperback: ISBN0-9703310-1-0)
McCarty, John and Brian Kelleher, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Illustrated Guide to the Ten-Year Television Career of the Master of Suspense. St Martin's Press 1985 (paperback: ISBN0-3120171-1-1)
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